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So I’ve been in the market for a newer/working RSS reader for a while, and about two weeks ago I decided to try out Substack’s new reader. Here are my thoughts.

First, infinite scroll in your inbox. I hate this and would dearly love to be able to turn it off, but can deal for now.

Feed discovery: For now, you have to have the exact address of the feed. You don’t appear to be able to type in a URL and have the feed discovered. On the other hand, it seems to be pretty forgiving when it comes to parsing and rendering feeds.

Downside: You can’t delete a feed after you’ve added it. I get that this is still in beta, but that seems like something that should be part of any release.

Finally, you can’t yet import or export opml files, but maybe that’s coming in a future update.

Final verdict: I’ll continue to use this for now unless another reader comes along, hopefully one that doesn’t suck. My kingdom for a feed reader that doesn’t suck and that I can use across devices.

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OK Micro.blog in particular and #indieweb in general, we have another insentive to work on accessibility: Mastodon will be accessible, but only to a point, for the foreseeable future.

I am a huge fan of what the federated web represents, and I hoped Mastodon could be a way for more people to participate in that without having to manage the technical aspects of going full Indieweb. But if the federated web is going to carry over one of the worst parts of the corporate web, (intentionally cutting corners when it comes to including everyone while at the same time the expectation of recognition for the parts of the community of disabilities it has included), then it’s time to fedquit.

It’s like silo-quitting, except a whole lot more disappointing.

I can, and will, quit using Mastodon, as soon as I’m done writing this status. I’ll continue supporting the underlying protocols which are the back end of Mastodon on my personal site, in the hope that someday there’s a project that supports open protocols but is built with accessibility in mind from the ground up.

But I believe I’d be missing out on a huge opportunity to help move the IndieWeb forward if I failed to use this moment to encourage other platforms which make it easier for other non-technical people to participate in the IndieWeb to up their game and make sure that everyone is included.

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Has there been any further communication from NFB leadership regarding that instance of providing a serial sexual harasser a platform coupled with organizational blessing at this past summer’s convention, or is that one of those things we’re just supposed to memory hole.

Last time I heard, President Mark Riccabono

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Marcy Sutton (@marcysutton on Twitter) asks:

For people with disabilities out there: how does it make you feel when a website isn’t accessible? I’m mostly looking to hear about the quality of your experience when you encounter barriers to access, more than the types of problems out there. This applies to physical spaces and events, too. (I don’t normally dwell on the negative, but it’s for a purpose)

(thread starts here).

I was going to answer this on Twitter by way of a quote, but I think it’ll take more than 280 characters. The short answer: It depends on the site or event.

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I happen to agree with Matt’s assessment of Twitter which he expressed at the WordCamp Portland Q&A, so I’m going to try a different tack than Twitter because I hate Twitter threads and this is something that just can’t be discussed in two hundred and eighty character bursts.

Matt, I get that it bothers you at a deep, moral level to hold back a user experience that will significantly upgrade the publishing ability and success of tens or hundreds of millions of users. What should also bother you at a deep, moral level, (and it really doesn’t seem to be bothering you at all), is that you are significantly downgrading